The Rockman and the 80's

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moronmountain

moronmountain

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So listening to gibson5413's Boston clip reminded me of the Rockman craze in the 80's while I was in high school. I remember that a whole slew of dudes were even using the headphone/portable Rockman basically like a distortion/chorus (or was it reverb?), pedal in front of a clean amp. I even knew a dude that ran one in stereo by using a friggin' Y plug into two amps set to clean and loud. I honestly wasn't in to the sound, as I always leaned towards a darker tone (even though I started with a Crate 212), but there were plenty of dudes using that thing back in the day. I personally think, (at least around here) it's part of what started the whole, "it sounds like a bee in a jar!" comments from the guys that like boosted Marshall JMP's and Superleads.

Anyone else remember all this, or am I having a false flashback? :confused: :lol: :LOL:
 
Cool for the day. Gallien Krueger via Little Miss Dangerous is in the same realm. but tonez have progressed.

Megadeath was running them into Fenders and Marshall's in the mid 80's if I'm not mistaken.

That said, TS is a genius, and owned that tone with killer records to prove it.
 
midnightlaundry":8qcf4j0o said:
Cool for the day. Gallien Krueger via Little Miss Dangerous is in the same realm. but tonez have progressed.

Megadeath was running them into Fenders and Marshall's in the mid 80's if I'm not mistaken.

That said, TS is a genius, and owned that tone with killer records to prove it.
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Oh yeah he was! He did some cool production stuff if my memory serves me well. Don't get me wrong, the Rockman deffinately seemed to start a trend for more saturated guitar tones. I just thought it was too ice picky sounding, but it was a coold practice headphone amp at any rate. It was wierd to me that the headphone version was a fair amount cheaper, and (to me at least with my 15 year old ears) sounded just like the rack/preamp version, or whatever the other version was. I'm too lazy to search for a pic of it lol!
 
Also, More Than a Feeling was the 2nd guitar solo I ever learned, right after Don't Stop Believing, and I thought that little hammer pull thing TS did on that solo made me a "fast" player lol!
 
Pretty sure Def Lepard recorded the whole album "Hysteria" with these. ZZ Top used them on "After burner".

 
The 1st Boston record, the cool one, was recorded with a Marshall Plexi right?

I think so, so the whole Rockman thing is null.
 
supersonic":3c0fcnr5 said:
Pretty sure Def Lepard recorded the whole album "Hysteria" with these. ZZ Top used them on "After burner".
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It's funny how trends come around. DL and ZZ Top likely had quite a few older Superleads, JMP's, Fenders, Vox, etc. amps that so many people chase after these days, and when the RM came out with it's super solid state sound, dudes were thinking it was the next big/cool thing hehe! ;) Heck I even remember a tech telling me that tubes were going to quit being made the first time I had my 2205 re-tubed. He went on to say that EL34's were going to be the first to go, and he nearly talked me into modding my amp for 6l6's so I could keep it in tubes for a few more years lol!
 
Badronald":23ifij3b said:
The 1st Boston record, the cool one, was recorded with a Marshall Plexi right?

I think so, so the whole Rockman thing is null.
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Yeah I wasn't referring to Boston using it. I was talking about other players using it to get a new sound. I thought I read somewhere back then that the RM was Tom's effort to re-create this studio sound from the previous album. :confused:
 
I think Iron Maiden used the Rockman on the Somewhere In Time album.
 
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Rockman's were like $300 bucks when they came out, i bought an Arion Hot Watt MIJ Rockman type copy.

Had one in the 80's and got another off ebay 2 years ago.

Its okay and pretty loud, kinda cool to take to the park or something but i really dont use it.
 
Yup, my friend that got my into playing guitar had a Hot Watt.
 
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